Electrical Ground to Water Pipe, No Earth Ground

Great answer by Jim, as usual! Regarding ...

Does not having an earth ground to my panel all these years cause a negative effect on the various audio systems I've had? Does this affect things like bass weight, or solidity of the image etc?

From a technical standpoint I can't envision any way in which an absent or ineffective earth ground could affect sonics in those or most other ways. And I'll add that I too have an older home (1950's in my case), and until I had the electrical panel replaced and a couple of ground rods installed several years ago I too had the panel grounded only via a water pipe. During the approximately 30 years I was in that home prior to the electrical upgrade, those years encompassing several upgrades of my speakers and various other parts of the system, I never sensed any lack of bass weight. Or of imaging and dimensionality, at least once I had moved to tube amplification many years ago.

Best regards,
-- Al

I only see one wire going to it and that wire goes to the inside of the meter housing.

Foster_9,

That sounds like the remote read wiring for the water meter itself, has nothing to do with the grounding of the electrical service neutral conductor connection to earth.

In 1965 for the state and city you live in the AHJ, (authority having jurisdiction), the governing body electrical inspection department and probably the utility power company dictated the requirements for the grounding electrode, earth connection. NEC Code is only bare minimum electrical safety standards. I do know even back in 1965 the electrical service should have been grounded, connected to an approved grounding electrode per AHJ and or the utility power company.

From your original post,

When he checked out the panel, he noticed there is no earth ground to the panel. There is a ground wire going to the main water pipe, however. The electrician told me that the system is electrically safe with a ground only to the water pipe,

Rereading the above comments you did not say the electrician actually said the incoming domestic water pipe was used as the grounding electrode, earth connection. He only said it would be safe it was used as the earth connection, the grounding electrode. Do you know for sure if the incoming domestic water line, pipe, is metallic, example copper, water piping at least 10' long buried in the earth outside your house?

You do need to hire an electrician from your area. He will know what the local code for your area requires for the earth connection of the electrical service. You need to find out 100% whether the electrical service is earth grounded or not. If not get it done as soon as possible.
You also should think about replacing the Pushmatic electrical panel.

Just curious, the electrician that inspected the electrical service that told you it was not grounded, connected to earth, did he tell you then what would be required for him to ground the electrical service to meet electrical code for your area?
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Do you know for sure if the incoming domestic water line, pipe, is metallic, example copper, water piping at least 10' long buried in the earth outside your house?

I do not know.

Just curious, the electrician that inspected the electrical service that told you it was not grounded, connected to earth, did he tell you then what would be required for him to ground the electrical service to meet electrical code for your area?

Yes, I would have to get the city to allow a shut off through the power company without a required panel replacement and upgrade to 200 service unless I was just going to put in a new panel. It is more than I want to spend for me to put in a new panel now. I'm willing to pay the cost to have an electrician install an earth ground if the city will allow this without requiring a full electrical upgrade.

Foster_9,

In my area repairing or upgrading the electrical service earth grounding electrode system would be considered electrical service maintenance and does need any city AHJ or utility power company involvement.

The utility power company does not need to be involved as the utility power will not need to be shut off to repair/install the necessary earth grounding needed to make the electrical service earth grounded and safe.

I can't believe the AHJ would require any property owner to install a new electrical service when all that is needed is to repair and or add to an existing electrical service grounding electrode system. I think the electrician you had was just trying to get a few thousand dollars of your money. Beats me why an electrical contractor would even suggest to a customer the AHJ and or utility power company would need to be involved in repairing or upgrading the grounding electrode system for an existing electrical service, especially the utility power company. If the service is not properly earth grounded and for whatever reason the service neutral connection at the utility transformer or the service weather head connection became loose or worse broken free from the service entrance neutral conductor there would be absolutely no path for the unbalanced 120V L1 to neutral and 120V L2 to neutral loads connected to the service electrical panel in the home to return to the source, the utility transformer. As poor as the earth is for use as a conductor in this case it still is better than nothing.

See pages 2-5 and 2-6.
http://www.hvacovervoltage.com/info/EffectsOfOvervoltage.pdf

I would suggest you phone call around electrical contractors in your area and ask them for their opinions for repairing the grounding electrode system for the electrical service of your home. Grounding electrode is just a fancy word for the thing used to connect the ground wire from the electrical service neutral/bar to earth. Example a ground rod or the domestic metallic incoming water pipe is a grounding electrode. Even if the water pipe is used, per current NEC Code it will need to be supplemented by at least one outside driven ground rod. For your area more than one ground rod may be required.
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Same in my area, Jea48, no need to notify the city. The electrician removed the old ground wire from the water pipe, drilled and installed a copper grounding rod and that was it.
I think of this as electrical service maintenance to my property.